Medical risk underwriting system

ABSTRACT

According to some embodiments, systems, methods, apparatus, computer program code and means may display information from a medical risk factor computer storage unit. Information associated with an insurance policy, having an insurance policy identifier, may then be received from an underwriter along with a plurality of medical risk factor values for the insurance policy. The plurality of medical risk factor values may be stored into an insurance policy storage unit in association with the insurance policy identifier. An overall risk level associated with the insurance policy may be automatically calculated based on the plurality of medical risk factor values, and at least one file may be locally saved associating overall risk level with the insurance policy identifier and/or medical risk factor values.

FIELD

The present invention relates to computer systems and more particularlyto computer systems that associated with medical risk underwritingdecisions for an insurance policy.

BACKGROUND

An underwriter may evaluate risks associated with a potential insurancepolicy. For example, the underwriter might consider various medical riskfactors associated with an applicant's potential life insurance policy.There are, however, a substantial number of factors that may need to beconsidered by the underwriter. In some cases, a printed manual isprovided to help underwriters evaluate medical risk factors. In thisway, underwriters can look up various medical conditions to learn aboutrisks associated with those conditions. Such an approach, can be timeconsuming that the underwriter may need to manually copy riskinformation and/or manually calculate certain values (e.g., anapplicant's average blood pressure) before he or she can determine anoverall amount of risk associated with the potential insurance policy.Moreover, manually creating a letter to notify an applicant of anunderwriting decision (e.g., informing the applicant that his or herapplication has been denied). Note that transmitting this type ofinformation over a network, such as by transmitting the information to aweb site via the Internet, may not provide a level of security andprivacy that is appropriate for an applicant's medical information.

It would therefore be desirable to provide systems and methods tofacilitate medical risk underwriting decisions for a potential insurancepolicy in an automated, efficient, and accurate manner.

SUMMARY

According to some embodiments, systems, methods, apparatus, computerprogram code and means may facilitate medical risk underwritingdecisions for an insurance policy. In some embodiments, systems,methods, apparatus, computer program code and means may displayinformation from a medical risk factor computer storage unit ordatabase. Information associated with an insurance policy, having aninsurance policy identifier, may then be received from an underwriteralong with a plurality of medical risk factor values for the insurancepolicy. The plurality of medical risk factor values may be stored intoan insurance policy storage unit in association with the insurancepolicy identifier. An overall risk level associated with the insurancepolicy may be automatically calculated based on the plurality of medicalrisk factor values, and a file may be locally saved associating theoverall risk level with the insurance policy identifier and/or pluralityof medical risk factor values.

A technical effect of some embodiments of the invention is an improvedand computerized method to facilitate medical risk underwritingdecisions for an insurance policy. With these and other advantages andfeatures that will become hereinafter apparent, a more completeunderstanding of the nature of the invention can be obtained byreferring to the following detailed description and to the drawingsappended hereto.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is block diagram of a system according to some embodiments of thepresent invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates a method that might be performed in accordance withsome embodiments.

FIG. 3 illustrates an underwriting method that might be performed inaccordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 4 is an example of a medical risk factor index display according tosome embodiments.

FIG. 5 is an example of a basic information display in accordance withsome embodiments.

FIG. 6 is an example of an average blood pressure calculator displayaccording to some embodiments.

FIG. 7 is an example of an oncology and tumors display in accordancewith some embodiments.

FIG. 8 is an example of a rate summary display according to someembodiments.

FIG. 9 is an example of a word processor document display in accordancewith some embodiments.

FIG. 10 is an example of solid tissue cancer display according to someembodiments.

FIG. 11 is block diagram of a medical risk underwriting tool or platformaccording to some embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a tabular portion of a potential insurance policy databaseaccording to some embodiments.

FIG. 13 illustrates a security method that might be performed inaccordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 14 is an example of password display in accordance with someembodiments.

FIG. 15 illustrates a handheld tablet displaying medical riskunderwriting information according to some embodiments described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Some embodiments described herein may facilitate medical riskunderwriting decisions for an insurance policy. Further, someembodiments may provide a mechanism that automates a user interface thatmight be used, for example, by an underwriter in connection with a lifeinsurance policy. FIG. 1 is block diagram of a system 100 according tosome embodiments of the present invention. In particular, the system 100includes a medical risk underwriting system 150 that receivesinformation from a medical risk factor database 110 (e.g., which maystore detailed information of various medical risks associated withblood pressure disorders, digestive diseases, cancers, etc.) and storesinformation into and receives information from a potential insurancepolicy database 120 (e.g., associated with one or more life insurancepolicy applications being examined by an underwriter).

The medical risk underwriting system 150 might be, for example,associated with a Personal Computers (PC), a spreadsheet application 152such as the EXCEL® spreadsheet application available from MICROSOFTCORPORATION® (e.g., including spreadsheet workbooks and/or templates), alaptop computer, an enterprise server, a server farm, and/or a databaseor similar storage devices. The medical risk underwriting system 150may, according to some embodiments, be associated with an insuranceprovider. Note a spreadsheet application is not the only way ofimplementing the medical risk underwriting system 150 and embodimentsmight instead be configured using Visual Basic, Java, HyperText MarkupLanguage (“HTML”) protocols, etc.

According to some embodiments, an “automated” medical risk underwritingsystem 150 may help underwriter make appropriate underwriting decisionsin connection with various medical risk factors. For example, themedical risk underwriting system 150 may automatically output anappropriate suggestion of a level of risk associated with a particularillness via a graphical user interface display. As used herein, theterms “automated” and “automatically” may refer to, for example, actionsthat can be performed with little (or no) intervention by a human.

As used herein, devices, including those associated with the medicalrisk underwriting system 150 and any other device described herein, mayexchange information via any communication network which may be one ormore of a Local Area Network (LAN), a Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), aWide Area Network (WAN), a proprietary network, a Public SwitchedTelephone Network (PSTN), a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) network,a Bluetooth network, a wireless LAN network, and/or an Internet Protocol(IP) network such as the Internet, an intranet, or an extranet. Notethat any devices described herein may communicate via one or more suchcommunication networks.

The medical risk underwriting system 150 may store information intoand/or retrieve information from the databases 110, 120. The databases110, 120 might be associated with, for example, an insurance provider orinsurer. The databases 110, 120 might be locally stored within themedical risk underwriting system 150. According to some embodiments, themedical risk underwriting system 150 communicates information, such asby transmitting an electronic file or signal to an external platform 160associated with an underwriter display, a printer, an insurance agent oranalyst platform, an email server, a workflow management system, etc.

Although a single medical risk underwriting system 150 is shown in FIG.1, any number of such devices may be included. Moreover, various devicesdescribed herein might be combined according to embodiments of thepresent invention. For example, in some embodiments, the medical riskunderwriting system 150 and databases 110, 120 are co-located and/or maycomprise a single apparatus.

FIG. 2 illustrates a method that might be performed by some or all ofthe elements of the system 100 described with respect to FIG. 1according to some embodiments of the present invention. The flow chartsdescribed herein do not imply a fixed order to the steps, andembodiments of the present invention may be practiced in any order thatis practicable. Note that any of the methods described herein may beperformed by hardware, software, or any combination of these approaches.For example, a computer-readable storage medium may store thereoninstructions that when executed by a machine result in performanceaccording to any of the embodiments described herein.

At 210, information from a medical risk factor computer storage unit maybe displayed. For example, information about various medical disordersmay be display along with guidelines, suggestions, and/or rulesindicating an amount of risk that may be associated with each disorder.According to some embodiments, a medical risk factor computer storageunit, an insurance policy storage unit, and/or a processor executing themethod of FIG. 2 are associated with a spreadsheet application. In thiscase, spreadsheet formulas, tabs, workbooks, etc. may facilitate thedisplay of medical risk factor information. According to someembodiments, information from the medical risk factor storage unit isdisplayed based at least in part on a “text characteristic” of themedical risk factor data. As used herein the phrase “textcharacteristic” might refer to, for example, a font, a font size, boldtext, underlined text, italicized text, a text color, and/or a textindentation. By way of example, all text stored using a bold-face fontmight be extracted and used in a table of contents display. As anotherexample, strings of text stored using an underline font might beincluded in a drop-menu and be selectable by the underwriter (e.g., sohe or she can request to view more information about a particulardisorder).

At 220, information associated with an insurance policy may be receivedfrom an underwriter. The insurance policy might comprise, for example, anew potential life insurance policy, a life insurance policy renewal,and/or a group life insurance policy. By way of example, the underwritermight provide some basic information about an application, such as aname, gender, date of birth, height, weight, blood pressure values, etc.According to some embodiments, this information is associated with aninsurance policy “identifier.” The identifier might be used, forexample, to store and later retrieve the information. Examples of suchidentifiers might include a policy number, a potential policyholdername, a potential applicant name, a client name, a date of data entry, adate of a file save, a date of birth, and/or a client number.

At 230, a plurality of medical risk factor values for the insurancepolicy are received from the underwriter. For example, the underwritermight indicate that a particular applicant had a history ofhypertension. According to some embodiments, the medical riskunderwriting system may display to the underwriter a suggested medicalrisk factor value. In this case, the underwriter might decide to acceptor adjust the suggested medical risk factor value. At 240, the pluralityof medical risk factor values are stored into the insurance policystorage unit in association with the insurance policy identifier. Forexample, the values may be stored by the underwriter as a file on his orher PC. This may allow the underwriter to later retrieve the information(e.g., when he or she returns to work the next day). This may also letan underwriter work on several different insurance applications (eachhaving its own save file).

At 250, an “overall risk level” associated with the insurance policy maybe automatically calculated based on the plurality of medical riskfactor values. Note that an overall risk level might be, for example, anoverall risk score (e.g., 0 through 100), an overall risk category(e.g., “acceptable” or “unacceptable”), or amounts of risk credits andrisk debits that might added to determine an overall level of risk. At260, at least one file may be locally saved associating the overall risklevel with the insurance identifier and/or the plurality of medical riskfactor values. According to some embodiments, an indication of theoverall risk level may be transmitted, such as by transmitting anelectronic file or signal to an external platform associated with anunderwriter display, a printer, an insurance agent or analyst platform,an email server, a workflow management system, etc.

According to some embodiments, a medical risk underwriting system 150may automatically generate a recommended underwriting decision based onthe overall risk level. Based on the recommended underwriting decision,the system may use a template in an external application (e.g., theWORD® word processing application from MICROSOFT CORPORATION®) toautomatically create a customized decision document including at leastsome of the insurance policy data.

FIG. 3 illustrates an underwriting method that might be performed inaccordance with some embodiments. At 310, information about a potentiallife insurance policy may be received from an underwriter. For example,the underwriter might enter a birthdate, height, and weight of anapplicant for an insurance policy. At 320, the medical risk underwritingsystem may suggest a medical risk value to the underwriter. For example,the system might suggest that the applicant's Body Mass Index (“BMI”)should be associated with 25 debit points (due to the elevated level ofrisk associated with that BMI value). If the underwriter adjusts thesuggested value at 330, the adjusted value is stored at 340. If theunderwriter does not adjust that value at 330, the originally suggestvalue is stored at 350. This process may be repeated for many differentmedical risks as appropriate. The medical risk underwriting system maythen calculate an overall risk value for the potential life insurancepolicy at 360. If the risk exceeds a predetermined threshold at 370, thesystem may automatically create a document at 380, such as a draftletter to applicant explaining why his or her application is beingdenied. If the risk does not exceed the predetermined threshold at 370,the system may automatically create a document at 390, such as a draftletter to applicant indicating that his or her application for lifeinsurance has been accepted.

FIG. 4 is an example of a medical risk factor index display 400according to some embodiments. The medical risk factor index display 400includes a main table of contents 410 listing different categories 420of medical conditions that can be accessed by the underwriter. Accordingto some embodiments, different categories may be associated withdifferent tabs of a spreadsheet application file. By way of example,selection of the “Index” category 420 result in an alphabetical medicalrisk factor index 430 being displayed to the underwriter. Theunderwriter may then select entries in the index 430 to see moreinformation about that particular topic (e.g., providing details aboutthe level of risk associated with that type of medical disorder).According to some embodiments, the main table of contents 410 alsoincludes a “search” icon 440 selectable by the underwriter. In thiscase, he or she could enter text and the system may automatically locatethat text. According to some embodiments, the main table of contents 410also includes a “debit calculator” icon 450 selectable by theunderwriter to view, enter, and/or adjust risk information.

Selection of the “Introduction” category 420 of the main table ofcontents 410 may result in display of a basic information display. Forexample, FIG. 5 is an example of a basic information display 500 inaccordance with some embodiments. The display 500 include a pop-up dataentry window 510 that can be used by an underwriter to provide anapplicant's name, gender, date of birth, height, and weight. Accordingto some embodiments, these values can be saved and later retrieved bythe underwriter (e.g., so he or she does not have to re-enter theinformation). The data entry window 510 may also include blood pressurevalues (e.g., systolic and diastolic blood pressure values).

According to some embodiments, selection of the “Calculate Average BloodPressure” icon 520 of the date entry window 510 results in display of anaverage blood pressure calculator. For example, FIG. 6 is an example ofan average blood pressure calculator display 600 according to someembodiments. In this example, a calculator 610 may include data entryareas 620 where the underwriter can enter blood pressure values asappropriate. Selection of the “Done” icon 630 by the underwriter maycause the system to calculate the average of the entered values (and theinformation may be automatically populated in the pop-up data entrywindow 510 of the basic information display 500 illustrated in FIG. 5.

Selection of a category in the main table of contents may causeadditional information about that category to be displayed. For example,FIG. 7 is an example of an oncology and tumors display 700 that mayappear when the underwriter selects the “Oncology & Tumors” category 720in the main table of contents 710. In accordance with some embodiments,detailed information about different types of medical conditions withinthat category may be displayed along with medical risk information 730that may be used by the underwriter. The medical risk information 730may, for example, indicate a particular type of disease has a standardlevel of risk (“STD”), an increased level of risk associated with adebit value, or that level of risk is unacceptable and the applicationshould be declined (“DEC”).

The amount of risk associated with debit values may be accumulated (inconnection with the various medical illnesses an applicant has). Forexample, FIG. 8 is an example of a rate summary display 800 that mayappear when the underwriter selects the “Rate Summary” category 820 inthe main table of contents 810. In accordance with some embodiments,detailed information about different types of medical conditionsassociated with the applicant may be displayed along with medical riskinformation 830 that may be used by the underwriter. Moreover, anoverall level of risk may be reflected in the “Cumulative Debit”displayed on the rate summary display 800.

According to some embodiments, the cumulative debit displayed on therate summary display 800 may be used by the system or underwriter toultimately determine that the insurance policy application should beaccepted or that level of risk is unacceptable and the applicationshould be declined. Moreover, based on the recommended underwritingdecision, the system may automatically use a template in an externalword processing application to automatically create a customizeddecision document including at least some of the potential insurancepolicy data. For example, FIG. 9 is an example of a word processordocument display 900 in accordance with some embodiments. In particular,the display 900 includes a document 910 comprising a letter to theapplicant informing him or her that the insurance policy application hasbeen accepted. Note that the automatically generated document 910 mayautomatically induce information about the applicant 920 as appropriate.A similar document 910 could be generated for applicants who are deniedinsurance. In either case, the underwriter might manually adjust theautomatically generated document 910 as appropriate.

The medical risk factor underwriting system may let the underwriterselect and/or view information about specific subsets of medical riskfactor information. For example, FIG. 10 is an example of solid tissuecancer display 1000 according to some embodiments. A selection pop-upwindow 1010 may be used by the underwriter to select various subsets ofsolid tissue invasive cancers (e.g., skin cancers, hematologic cancers,etc.). According to so embodiments, the display of information from amedical risk factor storage unit is performed based on a textcharacteristic of the medical risk factor data. For example, all texthaving a font size of 12 indented to a certain column within aparticular portion of the spreadsheet (or text that is indented to aspecific column) might be used to populate the selection pop-up window1010.

The embodiments described herein may be implemented using any number ofdifferent hardware configurations. For example, FIG. 11 illustrates amedical risk underwriting system 1100 that may be, for example,associated with the system 100 of FIG. 1. The medical risk underwritingsystem 1100 comprises a processor 1110, such as one or more commerciallyavailable Central Processing Units (“CPUs”) in the form of one-chipmicroprocessors, coupled to a communication device 1120 configured tocommunicate via a communication network (not shown in FIG. 11). Thecommunication device 1120 may be used to communicate, for example, withexternal devices. The medical risk underwriting system 1100 furtherincludes an input device 1180 (e.g., a mouse, a keyboard, a touchscreen, or a microphone associated with an underwriter to receiveinformation about an applicant's health) and an output device 1150(e.g., to output reports and the medical risk factor information). Notethat the medical risk underwriting system 1100 might be associated withan insurer.

The processor 1110 also communicates with a storage device 1130. Thestorage device 1130 may comprise any appropriate information storagedevice, including combinations of magnetic storage devices (e.g., a harddisk drive), optical storage devices, mobile telephones, and/orsemiconductor memory devices. The storage device 1130 stores a program1112 and/or a medical risk factor engine 1118 for controlling theprocessor 1110. The processor 1110 performs instructions of the programs1112, 1118, and thereby operates in accordance with any of theembodiments described herein. For example, the processor 1110 maydisplay medical risk factor information and receive informationassociated with an insurance policy, having an insurance policyidentifier, from an underwriter along with a plurality of medical riskfactor values for the insurance policy. The plurality of medical riskfactor values may be stored by the processor 1110 into an insurancepolicy storage unit in association with the insurance policy identifier.An overall risk level associated with the insurance policy may beautomatically calculated by the processor 1110 based on the plurality ofmedical risk factor values, a file may be locally saved associating theoverall risk level with the insurance policy identifier and/or theplurality of medical risk factor values, and an indication of theoverall risk level may be transmitted from the processor 1110.

The programs 1112, 1118 may be stored in a compressed, uncompiled and/orencrypted format. The programs 1112, 1118 may furthermore include otherprogram elements, such as an operating system, a database managementsystem, and/or device drivers used by the processor 1110 to interfacewith peripheral devices.

As used herein, information may be “received” by or “transmitted” to,for example: (i) the medical risk underwriting system 1100 from anotherdevice; or (ii) a software application or module within the medical riskunderwriting system 1100 from another software application, module, orany other source.

In some embodiments (such as shown in FIG. 11), the storage device 1130further stores a medical risk factor database 1160 (e.g., containinginformation about various medical disorders and associated risks) and apotential insurance policy database 1200 (e.g., to store informationabout one or more potential insurance policies). An example of adatabase that may be used in connection with the medical riskunderwriting system 1100 will now be described in detail with respect toFIG. 12. Note that the database described herein is only one example,and additional and/or different information may be stored therein.Moreover, various databases might be split or combined in accordancewith any of the embodiments described herein. For example, the medicalrisk factor database 1160 and/or potential insurance policy database1200 might be combined and/or linked to each other within the medicalrisk factor engine 1118.

Referring to FIG. 12, a table is shown that represents a potentialinsurance policy database 1200 that may be stored at the medical riskunderwriting system 1100 according to some embodiments. The table mayinclude, for example, entries identifying different insurance parametersentered into or calculated by the medical risk underwriting system 1100and may, according to some embodiments, be associated with a spreadsheetapplication. The table may also define fields 1202, 1204 for each of theentries. The fields 1202, 1204 may, according to some embodiments,specify: a potential insurance policy parameter 1202 and a parametervalue 1204. The potential insurance policy database 1200 may be createdand updated, for example, as information is received from an underwriterand/or as calculations are performed by the medical risk underwritingsystem 1100.

The potential insurance policy parameter 1202 may be, for example, aunique alphanumeric code identifying a particular input or outputparameter associated with the medical risk underwriting system 1100, andthe parameter value 1204 may store the current value of that parameter.The illustration of FIG. 12 generally includes information such as anapplicant's name, date of birth, gender, BMI value, total debits, totalcredits, and decision. Although the example of FIG. 12 illustrates asingle potential insurance policy, the database 1200 may storeinformation about a number of different potential policies, such as byassociating each potential policy with a policy number, a potentialpolicyholder name, a potential applicant name, a client name, and/or aclient number.

Note that the sensitive nature of the information processed by themedical risk underwriting system may call for security measures. Forexample, an insurer might want to avoid transmitting this type ofinformation via the Internet. As a result, some embodiments describedherein may execute as a standalone application on the underwriter'scomputing system. Moreover, the application, such as a spreadsheetapplication, may be password protected with a time sensitive passwordfunction. Moreover, the system may be further adapted to automaticallydelete spreadsheet application information upon occurrence of apre-determined event. For example, FIG. 13 illustrates a security methodthat might be performed in accordance with some embodiments. At 1310,the system requests that the underwriter provide a password. FIG. 14 isan example of password display 1400 in accordance with some embodiments.In particular, the system may ask for the password via a pop-up window1410 which, may, according to some embodiments, further displaytime-sensitive warnings.

If the password is not valid at 1320, the system blocks access to themedical underwriting system at 1330. If the password is valid at 1320,the system permits access to the medical underwriting system at 1340.The system then determines if a pre-determine event has occurred at 1350(e.g., has more than one year gone by since the password was issued?).If the event has occurred at 1350, some or all of the medical riskunderwriting system is deleted at 1360. If the event has not occurred at1350, the underwriter is allowed normal use of the medical riskunderwriting system at 1370.

Note that the present invention provides significant technicalimprovements to facilitate medical risk underwriting decisions for aninsurance policy. The present invention is directed to more than merelya computer implementation of a routine or conventional activitypreviously known in the industry as it significantly advances thetechnical efficiency, access and/or accuracy underwriting calculationsby implementing a specific new method and system as defined herein. Thepresent invention is a specific advancement in the area of medical riskunderwriting by providing technical benefits in data accuracy, dataavailability and data integrity and such advances are not merely alongstanding commercial practice. The present invention providesimprovement beyond a mere generic computer implementation as it involvesthe processing and conversion of significant amounts of data in a newbeneficial manner as well as the interaction of a variety of specializedinsurance, client and/or vendor systems, networks and subsystems. Forexample, in the present invention specialized and detailed medial riskfactor information may be accessed to determine an appropriateunderwriting decision.

Although specific hardware and data configurations have been describedherein, note that any number of other configurations may be provided inaccordance with embodiments of the present invention (e.g., some of theinformation associated with the databases described herein may becombined or stored in external systems). Additionally, one or more ofthe elements described herein may be practiced in a distributed cloudcomputing environment where tasks are performed by logically orphysically remote processing devices that are linked through one or morecommunications networks. For example, FIG. 15 illustrates a handheldtablet 1500 displaying medical risk underwriting information accordingto some embodiments described herein. In particular, the handheld tablet1500 is displaying medical risk factor underwriting data 1510.

The present invention has been described in terms of several embodimentssolely for the purpose of illustration. Persons skilled in the art willrecognize from this description that the invention is not limited to theembodiments described, but may be practiced with modifications andalterations limited only by the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A standalone medical risk underwriting computersystem comprising: a medical risk factor computer storage unit forreceiving, storing, and providing medical risk factor data; a policystorage unit for receiving, storing, and providing policy data; aprocessor co-located with and coupled to the risk factor computerstorage unit and the policy data storage unit, wherein the processor isconfigured to: generate a first graphical interface to receive apassword to access the standalone medical risk underwriting computersystem; responsive to receipt of an invalid password, block access tothe standalone medical risk underwriting computer system; responsive toreceipt of a valid password, determine whether a predetermined event,comprising expiration of a period of time since issuance of the passwordgreater than a predetermined period of time, has occurred; responsive toa determination that the predetermined event has occurred, delete atleast some data stored on components of the standalone medical riskunderwriting computer system; responsive to a determination that thepredetermined event has not occurred: receive information associatedwith a policy having a policy identifier, generate a second graphicalinterface including an index of selectable medical risk factors;responsive to receipt of a selected medical risk factor, generate anddisplay a suggested medical risk value corresponding to the selectedmedical risk factor; determine whether an adjustment to the suggestedmedical risk value was received; responsive to a determination that theadjustment to the suggested medical risk value was received, store theadjusted medical risk value; responsive to a determination that theadjustment to the suggested medical risk value was not received, storethe suggested medical risk value; repeat the steps of displayingsuggested medical risk values for a plurality of selected medical riskfactors and storing one of the adjusted medical risk value of thesuggested medical risk value corresponding to each of the selectedmedical risk factors; automatically calculate an overall risk levelassociated with a policy based on the plurality of selected medical riskfactor values, and locally save at least one file associating theoverall risk level with at least one of the policy identifier and theplurality of medical risk factor values; automatically generate arecommended underwriting decision based on the overall risk level;automatically create, by a template in an external application based onthe recommended underwriting decision, a customized decision documentincluding at least some of the policy data; and transmit, by acommunication device, the calculated overall risk level, but not theplurality of medical risk factor values, to an agent computing device.2. The system of claim 1, wherein policy is associated with at least oneof: (i) a new potential life insurance policy, (ii) a life insurancepolicy renewal, and (iii) a group life insurance policy.
 3. The systemof claim 1, wherein the overall risk level is associated with at leastone of: (i) an overall risk score, (ii) an overall risk category, (iii)an amount of risk credits, and (iv) an amount of risk debits.
 4. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the medical risk factor computer storageunit, the policy storage unit, and the processor are associated with aspreadsheet application.
 5. The system of claim 4, wherein the processorbeing configured to generate a second graphical interface including anindex of selectable medical risk factors comprises the processor beingconfigured to display information from the medical risk factor storageunit based on a text characteristic of the medical risk factor data. 6.The system of claim 5, wherein the text characteristic comprises atleast one of: (i) a font, (ii) a font size, (iii) bold text, (iv)underlined text, (v) italicized text, (vi) a text color, and (vii) atext indentation.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein the policyidentifier is associated with at least one of: (i) a policy number, (ii)a potential policyholder name, (iii) a potential applicant name, (iv) aclient name, (v) a date of data entry, (vi) a date of a file save, (vii)a date of birth, and (viii) a client number.
 8. A computerized methodcomprising: generating, by a processor of a standalone medical riskunderwriting computer system, a first graphical interface to receive anunderwriting computer system password; responsive to receipt of a validpassword, determining, by the processor, whether a predetermined eventhas occurred; responsive to a determination that predetermined event,comprising expiration of a period of time since issuance of the passwordgreater than a predetermined period of time, has occurred, deleting, bythe processor, at least some data stored on components of the medicalrisk underwriting computer system; responsive to a determination thatthe predetermined event has not occurred: receiving, by the processor,information associated with a potential policy having a policyidentifier; generating, by the processor, a second graphical interfaceincluding an index of selectable medical risk factors; responsive toreceipt of a selected medical risk factor, generating and displaying, bythe processor, a suggested medical risk value corresponding to theselected medical risk factor; determining, by the processor, whether anadjustment to the suggested medical risk value was received; responsiveto a determination that the adjustment to the suggested medical riskvalue was received, storing, by the processor, the adjusted medical riskvalue; responsive to a determination that the adjustment to thesuggested medical risk value was not received, storing, by theprocessor, the suggested medical risk value; repeating the steps ofdisplaying suggested medical risk values for a plurality of selectedmedical risk factors and storing one of the adjusted medical risk valueof the suggested medical risk value corresponding to each of theselected medical risk factors; locally storing, by the processor, theplurality of medical risk factor values into a policy storage unit inassociation with the policy identifier; automatically calculating, bythe processor, an overall risk level associated with the policy based onthe plurality of medical risk factor values; automatically generating,by the processor, a recommended underwriting decision based on theoverall risk level; automatically creating, by a template in an externalapplication based on the recommended underwriting decision, a customizeddecision document including at least some of the policy data; andtransmitting, by a communication device by the processor to an agentcomputing device, an indication of the overall risk level but not theplurality of medical risk factor values.
 9. The method of claim 8,wherein the overall risk level is associated with at least one of: (i)an overall risk score, (ii) an overall risk category, (iii) an amount ofrisk credits, and (iv) an amount of risk debits.
 10. The method of claim8, wherein the standalone medical risk underwriting system is associatedwith a spreadsheet application, and the displaying the second graphicalinterface including the index of selectable medical risk factors-isperformed based on a text characteristic of the medical risk factordata, the characteristic comprising at least one of: (i) a font, (ii) afont size, (iii) bold text, (iv) underlined text, (v) italicized text,(vi) a text color, and (vii) a text indentation.
 11. A medical riskunderwriting computer system associated with processing risk factordata, the system comprising: a medical risk factor computer storage unitfor receiving, storing, and providing medical risk factor data; a policystorage unit for receiving, storing, and providing potential policydata; a processor, executing a spreadsheet application, co-located withand coupled to the medical risk factor computer storage unit and thepolicy storage unit, wherein the processor is configured to: generate afirst graphical interface to receive an underwriting computer systempassword; responsive to receipt of an invalid password, block access tothe underwriting computer system; responsive to receipt of a validpassword, determine whether a predetermined event, comprising expirationof a period of time since issuance of the password greater than apredetermined period of time, has occurred; responsive to adetermination that the predetermined event has occurred, delete at leastsome data stored on components of the medical risk underwriting computersystem; responsive to a determination that the predetermined event hasnot occurred: receive information associated with a policy having apolicy identifier; generate a second graphical interface including anindex of selectable medical risk factors, the second graphical interfacedisplaying information from the medical risk factor computer storageunit based on a text characteristic of the medical risk factor data, thetext characteristic comprising at least one of: (i) a font, (ii) a fontsize, (iii) bold text, (iv) underlined text, (v) italicized text, (vi) atext color, and (vii) a text indentation, responsive to receipt of aselected medical risk factor, generate and display a suggested medicalrisk value corresponding to the selected medical risk factor; determinewhether an adjustment to the suggested medical risk value was received;responsive to a determination that the adjustment to the suggestedmedical risk value was received, store the adjusted medical risk value;responsive to a determination that the adjustment to the suggestedmedical risk value was not received, store the suggested medical riskvalue; repeat the steps of displaying suggested medical risk values fora plurality of selected medical risk factors and storing one of theadjusted medical risk value of the suggested medical risk valuecorresponding to each of the selected medical risk factors; locallystore the plurality of medical risk factor values into the policystorage unit in association with the potential policy identifier,automatically calculate an overall risk level associated with thepotential policy based on the plurality of medical risk factor values,transmit, by a communication device to an agent computing device, anindication of the overall risk level, automatically generate arecommended underwriting decision based on the overall risk level; andautomatically create, by a template in an external application based onthe recommended underwriting decision, a customized decision documentincluding at least some of the policy data.
 12. The system of claim 11,wherein the overall risk level is associated with at least one of: (i)an overall risk score, (ii) an overall risk category, (iii) an amount ofrisk credits, and (iv) an amount of risk debits.